Product Categories

The icon "made without hands" or "the icon of the Lord on the cloth", known in the West under the name of the "Holy Visage", occupies the central place among the images of Christ.

"We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands." Mark 14:58

The image "made without hands" is above all the incarnate Word, which "shewed" Itself in "the temple of His body."

"The Jews then said, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?' But Jesus spoke of the temple of his body" John 2:20-21

From that time on, the mosaic law which forbade images (Exodus 20:4) had no more meaning and the icons of Christ became undeniable witnesses of the Incarnation of God. Instead of creating according to their own inclination, "with their hands", the image of the God-Man, iconographers must follow a tradition which attaches them to the original archetype.

According to Byzantine tradition, the "image made without hands" is the image of Christ impressed on a piece of linen, which Christ had pressed to His face and sent to the envoy of King Abgar, the King of Edessa. Therefore, the Holy Napkin or "icon made without hands" is the prototype or pattern by which all subsequent icons of Christ are reproduced.

The Church has exalted the Mother of God above all the saints and all the celestial hierarchies. The place of the chosen Virgin is central in the history of salvation. In fact, the Divine Providence, being comfortable with the freedom of creatures, could not culminate in the Incarnation of the Son of God before the Holy Virgin had consented that "the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations" (Col. 1:26) should be realized in Her, rendering Her the Mother of God. That is why Saint John Damascene said that: "the name Theotokos contains the whole history of the Divine economy in the world" (Exposition of the Orthodox Faith; Book III, Chapter 12).

One cannot deny to the Holy Virgin the quality of the Mother of God, without injury to the dogma of the Incarnation. It is not the human nature of Christ taken in isolation, but the very Person of the Son of God, Who was born, according to His humanity of the Virgin Mary — a creature rendered apt by the Holy Spirit to receive in Her womb the Word of the Father come into the world.

"Mary the mother of Jesus" (Acts 1:14) made actual the unique relationship, which linked Her to Her Son, by manifesting Her personal sanctity. This sanctity can be no other than the "total sanctity", the plenitude of the grace conferred on the Church — the complement of the glorious humanity of Christ. But while the Church still awaits the advent of the world to come, the Mother of God has crossed the threshold of the eternal Kingdom; and, as the sole human person deified — token of the final deification of creatures — She presides, at Her Son's side, over the destinies of the world which will yet unfold in time.

This glorification, which belongs to the Mother of God, cannot be compared to the saints or the angels. The multiple aspects of Her glory, which surpasses what one can imagine, has given rise to a multitude of icons.

The Church with her feasts and services actuates the work of the divine economy within time, thereby sanctifying and transforming the time of everyday life. At the same time, she integrates it with, and directs it towards, its eschatological fulfillment—the Kingdom of God.

The Church's feasts, preeminent among which are the feasts of the Lord, are not mere commemorations. They are opportunities for communion with Christ and his body—the Church. This communion, which is brought about "through the intercessions of the saints and of the Theotokos," preserves the faithful and gives them increase within the body of the Church, offering them the gifts of the divine economy. In following the cycle of feasts, the faithful worshipper lives the whole work of the divine economy and comes to share in the life of the Kingdom of God in this present life.

Distinction is made between the movable and fixed feasts of the Church. The immovable feasts are tied to a fixed date in the Church's year which begins on the first day of September. They present us with specific redemptive interventions of God in the history of man, or with historical persons and events in the life of the Church: the Annunciation, the Nativity of Christ, Theophany, the Transfiguration and the feasts of the Theotokos. These feasts serve to sanctify time and transform it in the light of the Kingdom of God.

The movable feasts constitute a special sequence which stands apart from historical time and guides man above and beyond it. Fashioning a new dimension of time as though suspended above that temporality to which history is subject, it thus offers limitless vistas to the man who is shackled by time. At the center of the movable feasts is Pascha, the "feast of feasts".

While the fixed feasts, like the Annunciation and the Nativity, bear witness to the advent of the eternal into time, the movable feasts, like Pascha or the Ascension, affirm the transition from time to eternity.

Orthodox icons of various Saints, Apostles, and Martyrs. All traditional iconography; famous artistic wonders and more recent works from Monasteries and Churches.

How can we approach or understand the crucial role played out by the Holy Saints who were Christ's Holy Apostles, companions, friends and devoted followers not just in outward action, or intellectual agreement, but who were made "partakers of the Divine Nature," (II Peter 1:4) as was spoken in Holy Scripture. The saints are revelations of the pattern that became heavenly, that was made blessed and holy, that breathes life into us as we relate to them, for thay are living icons in the flesh, as was their master, Jesus Christ. They are indeed living icons of Christ, Who according to St. Basil the Great, is a living icon of God the Father "Whom no man has anywhere seen".

This section has matched icons of both our Lord Jesus Christ and the Mother of God (Theotokos). These are the perfect beginning center pieces to your home icon corner, for over your bed, or anywhere in your home or church!

God created innumerable numbers of these bodily hosts! Seraphim, Cerubim, Archangels, Angels, etc. A Guardian Angel is given to each Christian at Baptism that watches over our soul during this life and into eternity. Here you will find icons of these angelic hosts — the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, along with icons of Guardian Angels, Angelic Chiors, and many others!

From the very beginning of Salvation history, we have examples of men and women who lived holy and blessed lives, and we remember them with thankfulness, for they encourage us to have a real and lasting relationship with the Living God as they did. We can look to the blessed Enoch who walked with God, Noah who was faithful in his faithless generation, the righteous Job the Long-Suffering, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the Patriarchs who spoke and wrestled with God, the comely Joseph who forgave his brothers' grievous wrongs and all those who lived before Moses who heard and wrote their sacred history by an angel's heavenly visitation.